Snoring may disturb persons sleeping in the same room or on the same bed as the person snoring. From time to time snoring can become so loud that it may even awaken the snoring person or others in the same room or bed. Some may deal with a snorer by waking him/her up to cause the snoring to stop, but this causes the snorer's sleep to be interrupted. Furthermore, after going back to sleep, snoring may start again, often shortly afterwards.
Snoring may occur when soft tissue in the back of a person's mouth relaxes during sleep, especially when a person sleeps on his or her back. The relaxation of the tissue may partially block the airway, which causes the body of the person to react by breathing harder, which in turn causes vibration of the tissue that results in a snoring sound. In some cases it has been determined that the snoring sounds do not occur if and as long as the person concerned sleeps in a particular position, such as lying on his or her side. Fewer people tend to snore when lying on their side, as the soft tissue may not obstruct the airway in the same manner as when the person is lying on his or her back.
Various ways have been developed to prevent snoring. Some conventional devices seeking to address this problem have variously forced a person to sleep on their side, which may not be conductive to restful sleep for some persons. Other conventional devices have disposed a vibrator in the head of the bed to actuate upon snoring, but often the actuation of the vibrator interrupts the sleep of the person. Still other conventional devices have used a speaker to subconsciously cause a change of behavior in a snoring person. Furthermore, still other conventional devices have used a vibrator to influence a person to change their sleeping position.
Consequently, there is a need for a system and associated method suitable to stop a person's snoring by changing his or her sleeping position without substantially disturbing his/her sleep, and, in the event that does not work, to selectively awaken the person.